Three Republican senators and over a dozen House lawmakers urged President Biden to cut off “unrestrained” military assistance to Ukraine, absent a U.S. strategy to rapidly force a conclusion to the war.
“Unrestrained U.S. aid for Ukraine must come to an end, and we will adamantly oppose all future aid packages unless they are linked to a clear diplomatic strategy designed to bring this war to a rapid conclusion,” a letter they addressed to Biden today states. The letter does not outline how Biden could force the war to a halt, though presumably this would involve exerting pressure on Kyiv to abandon territory seized by Russia.
The Mike Lee–led letter’s signatories also include Senators Rand Paul and J. D. Vance, in addition to Representatives Eli Crane, Lauren Boebert, Dan Bishop, and Matt Gaetz, among others, on the House side. Although the letter was circulated among some Senate GOP offices for at least a month, some prominent opponents of sending open-ended support to Ukraine, including several who voted against a Ukraine aid supplemental package last May, appear not to have signed the letter.
Washington has authorized several rounds of funding for direct support to Ukraine and for U.S. government programs responding to the Russian invasion. Thus far, the Pentagon has sent $36 billion worth of defense equipment to the Ukrainian military. Money from the most recent appropriations package, enacted as part of an omnibus spending bill last winter, are expected to run out later this year, and leaked government documents indicate that Ukrainian forces are undersupplied, even as they’ve unexpectedly held out in the city of Bakhmut.
The lawmakers argue that even though the U.S. “has been the principal financier of the Ukrainian defense effort,” the conflict has no end in sight, and “a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine is not in the strategic interest of the United States and risks an escalation that could spiral out of control.” The letter further notes that pledged U.S. aid to Ukraine amounts to $113 billion in security and economic assistance and raps U.S. allies in Europe for failing to provide an adequate level of assistance themselves.
The senators and representatives also criticize the Biden administration’s decision to provide Ukrainian forces with the HIMARS rocket system, which is widely credited with playing a role in Kyiv’s military advances. That move “was seen as a serious provocation, given the enhanced capabilities these weapons afforded,” according to the lawmakers.
They’re also concerned that “our military assistance goes beyond tangible assets to include military training and intelligence support” because that makes it “increasingly difficult to deny Russian accusations of U.S. complicity in a proxy war.”
This is followed by a stark warning: “Russian tolerance for fighting a proxy war with NATO could run out at any point. The decision to invade Ukraine should be evidence enough of Putin’s willingness to use military force and should give us pause in continuing to push the limits at the risk of catastrophe.”
Continued assistance to Ukraine has so thoroughly depleted U.S. weapons stocks that “we fear that our military will be woefully underprepared” if war with Russia or China erupts, they wrote, adding that the U.S. stance “is pushing our two greatest adversaries together,” citing the “no-limits” partnership that Russia and China inked just before the Russian invasion. “Both China and Russia see the U.S. as inextricably opposed to their interests and security. The depth of U.S. involvement in Ukraine only gives credence to this narrative.”